Pyrolysis of a liquid hydrocarbon material is a well-known process that involves heating the material to a temperature that is high enough to cause thermal decomposition of larger molecules to form smaller molecules. Pyrolysis may be accomplished with a diluent, such as steam, to produce more favorable product distribution. A pyrolysis process produces a highly unsaturated and very unstable product, hereinafter called the effluent from the pyrolysis process, or simply the effluent.
The effluent is usually rich in olefins, diolefins, acetylenes and other highly unstable compounds, and there is a strong tendency for these materials to react to form high molecular weight products which may be identified collectively as coke or tar. Such products are not desirable and to avoid forming them it is essential to reduce the temperature of the effluent quickly to a stable temperature, that is to a temperature that is so low that rapid reactions of unstable compounds with each other do not take place.
Not withstanding efforts to prevent the condensation and collection of such materials, "coking" of quench units remains a problem which requires regular offstream time for "de-coking". The invention addresses this problem.